3:10 to Yuma, or Liam's room

3:10 am, wailing from youngest child's room. Enter stage right, punch drunk father.
Me: What's wrong, baby?
Liam: I don't want you to go to work!
Me: ....processing... but honey, it's only Thursday, daddy still has to go to work today.
Liam: (half way through the above sentence) zzzzzzzzz.....

Hmm? Three year old's nightmare or mystic precognition? "Hello? Hi, this is Chad. Ya, listen, I won't be coming in today. No, I'm fine, my son just had a vision last night. No, I'm not sure. He's only 3 and it was early in the morning so it's not like he could really define what he saw, but you know how it is? Ok, sure. See you tomorrow, thanks!"

Wouldn't that be nice? Somehow I just don't see that flying.

Welcome Back

Feeling decidedly disheveled today. My shoes feel too big, my jacket feels like it belongs to someone else and my back feels like it's covered with a think coat of goo. Wait, my back is covered with a thick coat of goo. Or at least a coat of vitamin A and D cream to help my tattoo heal and not get infected. I absolutely despise the feeling of creams or ointments between my skin and my clothes so that probably isn't helping. That and the fact that my beloved iPod keeps crashing. It does that occasionally. Now I'll have to reload the software again which is a pain in the ass. It started Saturday on my trip down to Seattle. Fumbling with your iPod doing 110km (70-ish) down the I-5 is not a good thing. Wouldn't have been so bad if I'd been in the van, that thing's a tank, my sister-in-law's Subaru though, you exhale more from your right lung than your left and the car is drifting that way. Don't get me wrong, I love that car. We used to have one before the van. That's a car you'd want for a police chase. Maybe not on the highway, but for in the city where you need to turn on a dime and corner like you're on rails, hell ya.

Where am I going with this? No idea, but the note pad and the music won't work at the same time now so I've got to keep myself distracted on the bus somehow. But now since I'm getting nauseous maybe it's time to switch back to the music.

Hours later. I figured it out as soon as I got in the office. Forgot to put on deodorant. That's why I carry the man-purse, always prepared. I'm thinking arming myself might not be a bad idea either. There's a rising tension level in the office, a feeling of imminent violence. Maybe I should turn my desk around so my back is to the wall?

Endings

Saturday I finally finished my tattoo. Five sessions, twenty-three hours of work, twenty hours of driving back and forth to Seattle and who knows how long waiting at the border and it's finally done. Once it's healed for a few days I'll put up a picture.

In an ironic twist of fate, this week also marked the end of my job. Wednesday afternoon my department found out we've been "centralized" to Toronto. It's been a long week. At least last year when Bernadette's place closed down they knew it was coming. It still sucked, but they'd been talking about it for awhile. This was out of nowhere. Thank goodness I'm already in therapy! Speaking of, kudos to my therapist who decided we should do a little crisis management and actually role played me through telling Bern. I hate role playing, but it definitely helped dropping that bomb.

So ya, August 28th and my 13 (ha ha!) years at my company come to an end. Well, unless I find something else there, but positions at my level are scarce and the idea of dropping a level... we'll see. "At my level," sounds like I'm upper management or something and not just another slave at the oar. At least with thirteen years under my belt I've got a good package. Oh, so many many jokes in that last sentence...

Anyway, that was my week. If you know anybody who's hiring or you need any odd jobs done around the house, let me know. I've got some free time soon.

Friday, what the hell just happened?

First week back to work is over.

The Right To Bear Arms

In Florida you can now take your gun to work.

Conversations With Co-workers

On why talking to my printer would be more productive than calling a certain client:

Printer: Dude, wake up, it isn't Friday yet.
Me: Huh! Wha.... I wasn't sleeping.
Printer: Uh, ya. Ok.
Me: So ____ doesn't have any information at all, does he?
Printer: Nope.
Me: Do you think he wears a bear-skin hat?
Printer: Absolutely.
Me: Now what? J wants an answer and she's a little scary today.
Printer: Tell her to wing it, say there's nothing irregular showing, yadda yadda yadda. Then you can forward it to _____.
Me: Thanks man.
Printer: You're talking to a printer, you need help.
Me: .......

My Day

Friday Night, Yee Haa!

Or not. It's 8:56pm, kids are finally in bed and Bern is still at work. And I'm ready to fall asleep. Sigh. Work has been a colossal bitch since.... the beginning of December. I feel like a zombie when I get out of there. And I think I'm developing carpal tunnel to boot. Thanks! You may have noticed an increase in other people's stuff and pictures and less of my own writing lately. Well that's why. By the time I get the kids to bed, sitting in any one spot for more than 10 minutes (especially in front of the computer) leads to heavy eyelids. Motivation and inspiration have been in short supply.

Anyway, that's my excuse. How pathetic is it if I just go to sleep now?

Wait, I have to finish my Happy Meal treats first! Ok, they were the kids Happy Meal treats, but they didn't like them so don't judge. It's the apple slices with caramel dipping sauce. Oooooooh.... If more fruit came with dipping sauce I'd be much more willing to eat them.

Buses And Stuff

Bern's doing a 2pm til 10 shift at the new job so I'll be spending some quality time on public transportation in the short term. Might as well since I'm getting ass-taxed to death to pay for it, but that's another rant. Anyway, here's some random thoughts I punched into my iPod this morning.

-Buses need wi-fi.
-Should not have sat sideways, bleh.
-Dear God who dealt that!?

Ah, the joys. Not much in the way of original posts lately, mostly lifting other people's work. Laziness? Mid-winter lack of inspiration? Near-catatonia from the soul crushing work load I'm under? Maybe a little bit of everything but mostly the last. Whatev's.

And my favourite song of the moment:

Origami

One of my co-workers, we'll call her Boom Boom, got an origami desk-top calendar for Christmas and has been making a lot of small shirts. This is the top of my PC.




Thanks, Mei-Mei

My Week

Imagine my week as this bottle. Bite the neck off the bottle. Chew the glass thoroughly and swallow. Tomorrow morning, pass the glass. That was my week from Monday to Friday. But hey, it's Friday, it's a long weekend, and I've got a freshly opened bottle of Dutch goodness. I'm thinking positive.